Select few catch a rare glimpse of planet
BY ALEXIS HNERSON
The brisk 8-degree wind chill Friday
night wasn’t enough to stop some
stargazers.
A small but excited audience showed
up to get a look at the planet Mercury for
the first time this year at the student
observatory on the top southwest comer
of the Stadium Parking Garage.
"More than 99 percent of the world’s
population has never knowingly seen
Mercury,” said Martin Gaskell, a UNL pro
fessor of physics and astronomy.
About 20 people packed into the small
observatory around 6 p.m. to try and get a
glimpse.
Only the first group of people were
able to see the planet, though, because
clouds rolled in only 20 minutes after the
viewing began.
Angelica Farias and Tom Gardner,
both of whom work in the UNL Division
of Continuing Studies, were part of the
second group that was riot able to see
Mercury due to clouds.
“I was really hoping to get to see
Mercury,” Gardner said. "But seeing the
other planets made up for it.”
After Mercury could no longer be
seen, Gaskell showed the viewers Saturn,
Venus, Jupiter and the Moon.
Farias said she was excited about see
ing the planets for the first time through a
telescope, but she said it was unfortunate
that she would not be one of the few who
have seen Mercury.
“Now I’m not going to be part of the 1
percent," Farias said. “But it was really
neat to see the rings of Saturn."
Gaskell said Mercury was not the best
he had ever seen it. The details of the
planet were not very clear, he said.
One UNL student who did get to see
Mercury agreed with Gaskell.
Ray Lemoine, a junior physics major,
said the planet looked “like a dot” and
was blurry because of the clouds. But he
said he was more impressed then he
thought he would be.
“I hadn't seen (Mercury) before,”
Lemoine said. “And that’s why I came up
tonight -because I might not be able to
see it again.”
In fact, Lemoine enjoyed the viewing
so much that he went home and brought
back two friends to take a gander: lose
Lopez and Chris Mills.
Lopez, a junior computer engineering
major, and Mills, a junior physics major,
said they enjoyed seeing the other plan
ets.
“You don’t get too many chances like
this,” Mills said.
Bush to unveil
plans for tax cut
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON — After two
weeks of warm-ups in which he
pushed education and reli
gious-based help plans,
President Bush is ready to
launch the sales job for die cen
terpiece of his economic pro
gram - a sweeping $1.6 trillion,
10-year tax cut
The White House has a full
schedule of activities this week,
starting Monday when Bush
was set to appear with a careful
ly selected group of American
families - much like he did dur
ing the campaign - to illustrate
the benefits of reducing individ
ual tax rates.
He planned to meet Tuesday
with small business owners and
on Wednesday scheduled a
White House reunion with his
tax families from the campaign
trail The outlines of his tax pro
gram are to be formally sent
Thursday to Congress.
One decision the adminis
tration is likely to make before
sending the plan to Congress is
whether to speed up the tax
relief by making it retroactive to
the first of this year as a way of
fighting off a recession.
a tax cut now win stimulate
our economy and create jobs,*
Bush said over the weekend. He
pointed to what he called “trou
bling” economic news of rising
energy prices, job layoffs and
falling consumer confidence
that the president said the gov
ernment must combat.
“He wants to see the tax cut
that he ran on pass, not just
because he ran on it, but
because it’s the best thing we
can do for the economy” Bush's
chief economic adviser,
Lawrence Lindsey, said on “Fox
News Sunday.”
While other aides have indi
cated that Bush would submit
the plan he campaigned on -
without retroactivity being
spelled out - Lindsey said the
president “absolutely” would
like it made retroactive to Jan. 1
if that is the will of Congress.
He acknowledged there
have been talks with lawmakers
about the effective date and,
responding to a question, said it
probably will wind up being
made retroactive to Jan. 1.
Whether Bush succeeds
could hinge on congressional
Democrats and corporate lob
byists, two groups already put
ting together their own, quite
different, versions of a tax cut
bfll.
Attracting Democratic sup
port is crucial for Bush, given
the Republicans' narrow control
of Congress.
Democrats lost a key ally
when Federal Reserve
Chairman Alan Greenspan said
last month that the surplus esti
mates had grown so large that
"The people who
need the most help
get the least help
and we've seen this
before. ”
Tom Daschle
Senate Democratic leader
he now believed there was
enough money to accomplish
his preferred objective of paying
down the national debt as well
as providing tax relief.
While more Democrats have
been joining the tax cut band
wagon, they are trying to refash
ion the Bush program so more
money goes to lower-income
taxpayers and less to the
wealthy. They also want to trim
the size of the overall program,
contending it is not prudent to
give away so much in surpluses
that may never materialize.
“The people who need the
most help get the least help and
we’ve seen this before,” said
Senate Democratic leader Tom
Daschle of South Dakota. “The
last time Congress passed a big
tax cut, in 1981, the wealthiest
Americans got most of the ben
efits and working families got
stuck with the bill.”
The corporate lobbyists,
meanwhile, will be working to
expand it the tax cut - possibly
by $600 billion - to include tax
breaks for their businesses.
Administration officials
insist they are not changing the
program that Bush campaigned
on, which has few provisions for
big business. “No more, no less,”
Lindsey said Sunday, when
asked if the $1.6 trillion figure
was correct.
Still, corporate lobbyists are
hoping that the millions of dol
lars in campaign donations they
made last year to both parties
will help persuade Congress.
Congressional veterans fear
the same type of tax-cutting
frenzy that occurred in 1981.
President Reagan pushed
.Congress for sweeping across
the-board cuts for individuals,
giving corporations an opening
to win passage for billions of
dollars in tax relief for them. The
result was huge tax cuts that
contributed to quadrupling the
national debt.
"I really fear we could lose
control of this train,” said Rep.
Robert Matsui, D-Calif., a mem
ber of the House Ways and
Means Committee who was
involved in the 1981 battle.
Many private analysts also are
worried, contending the rush to
cut taxes could grow even wilder
in an era of huge surpluses com
pared with the restrictions
imposed in the past era of
deficits.
Proposed bill would ensure,
solidify rights of victims
VICTIMS from page!
longer recognizes your standing
as victims,” he said.
Cushing said that although 29
of 50 states have enacted victims’
rights statutes, the Lamm case
represented the first time some
one challenged the rights applied
in a possibly discriminator man
ner.
"While we didn’t win in the
courts on merits, the action by die
Nebraska Legislature to prohibit
discrimination in the future will
act as an example for other states
in the federal government,” he
said.
Gus Lamm said he and his
daughter were discriminated
against because they opposed the
death penalty.
“Part of what Audrey and I
both faced was being validated as
second-class beings,” Gus Lamm
said.
Cushing said when victims
oppose the death penalty, they're
no longer referred to as victims.
This is a form of discrimina
tion, Cushing said, and it elimi
nates all rights for the victims.
“What Nebraska said (to the
Lamms) was because you don’t
want to kill Randy Reeves, you are
not victims anymore,” Cushing
said.
“What we need is a legislature
and policy in this country that
doesn't allow elected officials to
discriminate who don’t want to
see more killing,” he said.
"This is the kind of legislation
that we support.”
k
Deregulation plans get second look
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
TULSA, Okla. — When
California started going dark with
rolling blackouts, unnerved
Oklahoma lawmakers took
another look at their state's elec
trical deregulation plans - and
rethought the proposals.
In North Carolina, legislators
blamed Californians power crisis
in saying they’ll go no further this
year toward opening electric mar
kets to competition. And Vermont
Gov. Howard Dean thanked law
makers for blocking his push to
deregulate 31/2 years ago.
How long did it take to change
Dean's mind?
“About 5 minutes once I saw
what was happening in
California,” he said. *
Despite assurances that
California’s pitfalls are avoidable
and that deregulation is working
in other states, the Golden State's
flickering lights are setting off
alarms in more than a dozen
states considering moves to let
consumers comparison-shop for
electricity.
Twenty-four states and the
District of Columbia have
approved deregulation laws since
19%, but more than half of those
have yet to open power markets
to all consumers, the federal
Energy Information
Administration says.
The deregulation movement
caught hold in the mid-1990s,
when natural gas prices were low
and there was excess power to
sell. Rhode Island was the first to
allow retail power competition,
just ahead of California, in 1998.
Now, “California has spoiled
the restructuring well for every
state that’s considering it,” said
Pete Churchwell, president of
American Electric Power-Public
Service Co. in Oklahoma.
That’s despite the success
some other states have seen.
Pennsylvania approved deregula
tion a few months after
California, but with some key dif
ferences.
California's plan pushed utili
ties to divest their generating
plants while forcing diem to buy
power on a volatile spot market.
Rate caps prevented utilities from
passing on skyrocketing fuel costs
to consumers.
Pennsylvania utilities, howev
er, had the option of divesting
plants and also are free to enter
into long-term contracts, which
have served as a buffer to price
spikes in the spot wholesale mar
ket.
California’s equivalent was set
so low that customers had no
incentive to shop around, he said.
Officials in other states, such
as Maine and Maryland, point out
that unlike California they are
easing into deregulation with
plenty of power on hand and
more plants in the works.
Texas, for example, has built
22 power plants since 1995 and
has 15 more under construction.
The Lone Star State expects to add
at least 10,000 megawatts of
power by next year, when deregu
lation is scheduled to begin,
Brown said.
California added only 600
new megawatts in the past
decade.
No state expects to see a
repeat of California’s widespread
catastrophe, but vulnerabilities
exist
Real competition has yet to
grab hold in most states because
there’s still plenty of regulation
left in deregulation, Brown said.
Rate caps and phase-in rules have
limited the development of com
petitive retail markets.
And electric providers will
continue to be subject to the
whims of the soaring natural gas
market because most new plants
nationwide are gas-fueled, he
said.
New England’s strained
power system could be just a hot
summer away from coming up
short, said Steven Ferrey, a Boston
law professor and author of two
books on electric market regula
tion.
New plants are under con
struction, but 6,000 megawatts of
new power aren’t scheduled to be
available until the summer of
2002, ||e said.
States, such as Idaho and
South Dakota, where power
already is cheap, have seen no
need to move toward deregula
tion at all.
For those considering it, cau
tion is the keyword.
California-wary lawmakers in
Minnesota pronounced the
death of a deregulation plan that
was the darling of the Legislature
18 months ago. Some Oklahoma
legislators want to bump back a
2002 deregulation deadline to
have more time to study the issue.
Along with Oklahoma, delays
in deregulation schedules have
been proposed as a precaution in
Arkansas, Nevada, New Mexico,
Oregon and Texas.
“We must learn from the mis-.
takes in California, so that we
never repeat them here,” said
Nevada Gov. Kenny Guinn, who
told lawmakers he wouldn’t sup
port deregulation until he was
sure of adequate power supplies
and protections for consumers.
\
Minority-owned businesses get boost
from Jackson's lobbying of corporations
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
CHICAGO — The Rev. Jesse
Jackson’s efforts to lobby major
corporations to steer business
toward minority entrepreneurs
have at times aided his close
friends and family members, a
newspaper reported.
Those corporations also have
contributed heavily to Jackson
led not-for-profit groups that
foster contact between Fortune
500 companies and minority
owned businesses, the Chicago
Sun-Times reported Sunday.
Jackson’s Citizenship
Education Fund has received
more than $3.5 million in
pledges from SBC-Ameritech,
AT&T, Viacom, GTE and Bell
Atlantic, the Sun-Times report
ed.
Jackson opposed the 1999
merger of Ameritech and SBC
Communications until
the daily nebraskan
pretty sexy huh?
yep.
that's what we thought,
too.
V
Ameritech agreed to sell part of
its cellular business to a minority
owner.
Ameritech sold it for $3.3 bil
lion to a partnership that
includes Chester Davenport, a
longtime friend of Jackson, and
owner of Georgetown Partners.
“Clearly these companies
want to penetrate underserved
markets,” Jackson said at the
time. “If you expect us to do busi
ness with you, do business with
us.”
Jackson did not immediately
return phone calls left Sunday by
The Associated Press.
Doug Whitley, former presi
dent of Ameritech’s Illinois oper
ations, praised Jackson’s Wall
Street and LaSalle Street projects
- offshoots of the education fund
- for coaxing major corporations
into deals with minority busi
nesses.
“Part of the theme of the Wall
Street and LaSalle Street projects
is to make the big corporations,
which are primarily controlled
by white guys, aware of the need
to reach out to minority part
ners,” Whitley said. “I think com
panies need to be reminded, and
that’s a role Jesse Jackson plays.”
Jackson is currently lobbying
Viacom to sell its UPN television
network to Davenport or another
minority businessman.
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'T-gr*
Bill aimed
at cellular
phones
CELL from page 1
Instead, he said the
Nebraska Bar Association
opposes the bill because it
doesn’t mention a causal rela
tionship between talking on a
phone and getting into a wreck.
' The bill needs to say cell
phones caused accidents to set
the heavy burden of liability on
the shoulders of cell phone
users, Lathrop said.
Otherwise, he said, people
would be forced to battle an
arbitrary claim m court.
Sen. Kermit Brashear of
Omaha also questioned the
legal ramifications of the bill.
If passed, Brashear said the
bill would pour "an avalanche of
lawsuits” into an already
clogged court system.
Landis countered the legal
objections by noting that some
times lawmakers have to bear
the burden of extra legal work to
enhance the safety of citizens.
For example, he said no one
wants to remove drinking and
driving laws even though they
jam countless lawsuits into the
system.
Moreover, he said cell
phone users who get caught in
accidents that weren't their
fault won’t get pinned down by
lawsuits. ,
The part of the presumption
that will allow motorists to
refute the claim will vindicate
innocent drivers, he said.
To slam home his point
about the hazards of cell
phones, Landis took a different
approach than most senators
who typically distribute statis
tics and legal opinions.
Landis handed out car
toons.
The drawings poked fun at
drivers on cell phones creating
images of foolish accidents and
unnecessary close calls.
After giggles subsided,
Landis tagged a serious note
onto the lighthearted pictures.
Humor works around
shared truths, Landis said.
If people didn't realize that
cell phones do indeed cause
accidents, he said, they would
n’t laugh.
Therefoie, Landis said, the
senator’s smiles and smirks
illustrate that they know cell
phones are dangerous.
“It’s a laugh of recognition,
not mystery,” he said.
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